Turn Off the Overwriting Cell Warning

Several times every day, I drag something from one part of a worksheet to another. If there’s already something in that destination cell, Excel asks me if I’m sure I want to do this.
About 99.99% of the time, yes, I really want to replace the contents of that cell. So, I click OK, and the data moves.
That other 0.01% of the time, when I accidentally drag onto the wrong cell, I’d probably notice the mistake without Excel helping me, and just hit the Undo button.
The result of Excel’s help is that it slows me down, for no reason.

Turn the Message Off

Finally, after all these years of using Excel, I noticed that there’s a way to turn this feature off. (I prefer to think of this as the result of focused vision, not a lack of observation.)
Just in case you hadn’t notice this setting either, here’s how you can get rid of that message.

To turn off the feature in Excel 2007:

At the top left of the Ribbon, click the Office button

Click the Excel Options button

Click Advanced

Remove the check mark from Alert before overwriting cells, then click OK

To turn off the feature in Excel 2003:

Click the Tools menu, then click Options

Click Edit tab

Remove the check mark from Alert before overwriting cells, then click OK